The AKDN health system has been creating hospitals, clinics and community health programmes in East Africa for over 80 years. These facilities serve as “hubs” for the AKDN’s expanding East Africa Integrated Health System in the region, which is dedicated to providing high-quality health coverage at affordable prices to an economically diverse population. To that end, it works to transform healthcare systems in three areas: service delivery, education and research.
The Aga Khan Health Services operates high-quality ISO 9001 certified hospitals in Mombasa and Kisumu, including state-of-the-art diagnostic services. The Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi, the first multi-racial hospital in Kenya, is a 280-bed tertiary and teaching hospital. It is not-for-profit but financially self-sustaining and was the first hospital in East and Central Africa to receive Joint Commission International accreditation.
The Aga Khan University Hospital in Nairobi (AKUH-N) is an important referral centre for East Africa, with world-class specialists, advanced diagnostic services and state-of-the-art equipment. AKUH-N is the most comprehensive private hospital in East Africa, with over 60 services and a Heart and Cancer Centre that provides specialist cancer care and interventional cardiac and open heart surgical care. AKDN also operates more than 70 outreach health centres that are closely linked to the three hospitals in a hub and spokes model. This continuum of healthcare activities from primary to tertiary care forms the basis of an integrated health system that ensures the delivery of timely, high-quality services in the right setting.
Since 1983, the Network’s Community Health Department, has pioneered the establishment of primary healthcare practice in the country. It works in partnership with community-based health and social organisations, NGOs and the Ministry of Health to provide training and technical support from the dispensary level to the national level. The Community Health Department has also established community units and promotes safe motherhood by improving maternal and child health services in 14 selected government health facilities, thus facilitating service access to a population of over 150,000 in several sub-counties of Coast Province. Lessons learnt on best practices are disseminated nationally for replication in other areas. The Aga Khan Foundation has trained nearly 600 community health workers to deliver preventive and curative interventions around maternal and child health initiatives at the community and pre-primary school level. Focus is placed on promoting cost-effective childcare models through strengthening the capacity of home-based and child-care centres for children under the age of three.
In Kenya, the Aga Khan University educates and trains nurses and specialist physicians, nurturing in them a sense of social responsibility and a commitment to serving their communities. The School of Nursing and Midwifery offers a Post-RN Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Higher Diploma in Oncology Nursing to working nurses, allowing them to continue working while pursuing professional development.
The Medical College’s Postgraduate Medical Education programme trains specialist physicians in internal medicine, surgery, anaesthesiology, paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology, family medicine, radiology and pathology. It also offers fellowship training in cardiology, cardiac surgery, infectious diseases and population health. More than 160 physicians have completed advanced training at AKU in Kenya.
